A Leesburg Preschool parent was arrested after police say she stole a purse containing over $350 from one of the school’s employees.
According to the probable cause affidavit filed Oct. 9 in Kosciusko Circuit and Superior Court, Michelle Ann Reavis, 32, of 3699 N. CR 175E, Warsaw, was charged with theft, a Class A Misdemeanor, with a sentence enhancement for theft level 6 felony. She was booked into the Kosciusko County Jail at 7:07 p.m. Wednesday on a bond of $5,250.
The affidavit states that on Oct. 2, a Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department officer responded to a theft at the school. The officer spoke with the school employee who said she was the only teacher at the preschool while the children were arriving.
Reavis did not bring her son through the drive-through, but parked her vehicle and entered the school through the west door. The employee told the officer her purse was on the countertop in the kitchen. When other staff arrived, the employee looked for her purse and could not find it.
The school employee said the purse contained $350 in cash, medication and paperwork.
While the officer was at the school, one of the teachers asked Reavis’ son about the missing purse and he reportedly said “his mother had taken it,” according to the probable cause affidavit.
The officer spoke with Reavis, who said she came inside the school but stayed in the breezeway and never went into the kitchen. Reavis told the officer another woman came into the school after she did.
The officer spoke with the other woman, who said she had parked in the school parking lot. She observed Reavis and Reavis’s son exit their vehicle and walk into the school. The woman told police her daughter went to the playground, and she picked up her daughter and walked into the school. When she walked into the school, she observed Reavis in the kitchen but never observed Reavis in the breezeway.
The officer found that Reavis was previously convicted of theft April 23, 2013, in Kosciusko County Superior Court I.
(Story By The Times Union)
